Elon Musk Says Tesla and SpaceX See Significant Inflation Pressure – In a series of tweets that began Sunday evening, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, criticized excessive inflation. “What are your ideas on expected inflation rate over next few years?” he asked his 7.7 million Twitter followers. Musk also mentioned that raw materials and logistics are seeing significant inflation at Tesla and SpaceX.
Other companies are witnessing a similar trend, according to the SpaceX CEO. He cited a Financial Times report from earlier this month that stated that global commodity prices are on track for the largest weekly gain in more than 50 years, with Europe’s natural gas prices setting a new high.
“Events in Russia and Ukraine are letting loose exceptional commodity price moves, that could have structural implications on long-term supply, but we also believe there might be credible threats of demand destruction as commodity prices melt-up,” said Dominic O’Kane, an analyst at global investment bank JPMorgan.
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Musk’s tweets about inflation drew a lot of attention. “The potential of 10%+ inflation for much of 2022 is extremely strong,” Orcam Group founder Cullen Roche explained. Surprisingly, this raises the danger of deflation in 2023 and 2024, as it raises the chances of the Fed making a policy error and/or prices plummeting to compensate for it.”
“The US inflation rate increases to 7.9%, its highest level since 1982,” said Charlie Bilello, founder of Compound Capital Advisors, last week. Core inflation (excluding food and energy) reaches 6.4 percent, the highest since 1982.”
Michael Saylor, the pro-bitcoin CEO of Microstrategy, was one of those who responded to Musk. He wrote on Twitter:
“Consumer inflation in the United States will remain at all-time highs, but asset inflation will be double that of consumer inflation. Weaker currencies will fail, and money will flee from cash, debt, and value equities to scarce assets like bitcoin.”
Saylor’s finding did not surprise Musk. “It’s not altogether surprising that you came to that conclusion,” he responded. When inflation is strong, the SpaceX CEO goes on to say that “it is often preferable to hold real objects like a home or stock in companies you think manufacture good products than money.”
Tesla’s technoking also acknowledged that he still has three cryptocurrencies that he will not sell. Musk wrote, “I still own and will not sell my bitcoin, ethereum, or doge.”
He originally announced that he holds BTC, ETH, and DOGE in June of last year. He further stated that SpaceX is the sole owner of BTC. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Tesla stated that the fair market value of his bitcoin holdings as of December 31 was $1.99 billion.
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Musk challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to “single combat” in a tweet on Monday. “The stakes are Ukraine,” he remarked. “Do you agree to this fight?” he asked the Kremlin in a follow-up tweet sent less than an hour later.
A few shipments of Starlink equipment have been shipped to Ukraine by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The Ukrainian vice prime minister stated, “Starlink keeps our cities connected and emergency services saving lives.”
